Exclude a channel in wishlist recording

I created a wishlist to catch all live boxing without me having to remember to set things to record as various episode titles (the name listed in the guide for the event), dates, and channels make season passes useless.

Wishlists are a very cool feature for this and I'm just beginning to grasp their power, but I've run into a problem. While excluding titles and requesting new only has greatly reduced the collateral I am collecting in the folder, I can't figure out how to stop these random, old fight cards on SNY (the NY Mets channel) from taking up precious space.

We recorded and are currently going through the entire series Breaking Bad marathon and only have a basic. This coupled with the facts that we give every new show half of their pilot to hook us and that old favorites are back with new seasons means we have a very full DVR ranging 80-95% full. I mark everything keep until I delete with some light viewing exceptions.

That is why this is currently a big deal. These cards, with my half hour padding, take up space and may prevent a beloved show from recording and I can't figure out how to exclude them. They are simply titled Boxing, so I can't exclude that. They are also marked as new even though they are not and they contain no description so I can't exclude them based on a random phrase in there. I also can't remove SNY from my guide because I use the channel in another wishlist.

The only solution I can think of would be just simply to exclude SNY from the results, but that, oddly, doesn't seem to be an option. What can I do within the wishlist feature to stop it from recording them?

EDIT: Here is a thought if I am as doomed in the wishlist world as I think I am: Would it be possible to attach an external HD to temporarily expand space while we continue to go through Breaking Bad?

I'm not sure you read my post, but thanks for trying to help. On the topic of upgrading the HD -- How would I watch everything that is on it? I mean its full and is going to be for the forseeable future. How would I transfer the old HD content to the new one?

I'm not sure you read my post, but thanks for trying to help. On the topic of upgrading the HD -- How would I watch everything that is on it? I mean its full and is going to be for the forseeable future. How would I transfer the old HD content to the new one?

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Do you have a PC or Mac? You can use Tivo Desktop or kmttg to transfer the shows to the PC and then either Tivo Desktop or pyTivo to transfer them back to the new hard drive.

I can't figure out how to exclude them. They are simply titled Boxing, so I can't exclude that. They are also marked as new even though they are not and they contain no description so I can't exclude them based on a random phrase in there. I also can't remove SNY from my guide because I use the channel in another wishlist.

The only solution I can think of would be just simply to exclude SNY from the results, but that, oddly, doesn't seem to be an option. What can I do within the wishlist feature to stop it from recording them?

EDIT: Here is a thought if I am as doomed in the wishlist world as I think I am: Would it be possible to attach an external HD to temporarily expand space while we continue to go through Breaking Bad?

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I think you're pretty much "doomed".

There's no way to exclude a channel from a specific wishlist. The normal workaround would be to remove the channel, but you already considered that and can't because you record other things from it.

And without any other keywords to work with there's no other criteria to exclude the bad results.

The only workaround I can think of (which are both pretty darn annoying) would be to either convert the wishlist to non-autorecording and periodically check it to manually schedule good matches or leave it autorecording but periodically scan the todo list and remove the bogus hits.

As for the external drive; there is one approved external drive that TiVo supports but there are serious limitations to using it. TiVo 'spreads' recordings across the two drives, so if you later remove the external drive you'll be unable to access any recordings TiVo made since the external drive was attached
Maybe as an alternative you could temporarily move some shows from the TiVo to a PC using TiVo Desktop, pyTiVo, or kmttg? (Won't work for copy protected shows though)

I think best you can do is make the Wishlist non auto record, then once a week or once a day use "View upcoming" to get a list of everything the wishlist catches and then go through and record the ones you want.
Unfortunately with Roamio software TiVo crippled non auto record wishlist functionality to make this kind of thing much harder to use, so it's not as convenient as it used to be, but it's better than getting a whole bunch of recordings you don't want.

As for the external drive; there is one approved external drive that TiVo supports but there are serious limitations to using it. TiVo 'spreads' recordings across the two drives, so if you later remove the external drive you'll be unable to access any recordings TiVo made since the external drive was attached
Maybe as an alternative you could temporarily move some shows from the TiVo to a PC using TiVo Desktop, pyTiVo, or kmttg? (Won't work for copy protected shows though)

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Just my personal opinion.....spend the money to upgrade the internal drive. The external is nice is theory, but the problem is so many things can go wrong. We went through 3 of the WD externals on our TivoHD.....each time losing everything. At one point even a bad cable caused freezing issues and slow boot times.

If you really want space to play with, upgrade the internal drive. Transfer the current shows off to a PC and then replace the drive and transfer them back.

With TD and even kmttg I think you can setup auto transfers to a PC if you have one running all the time. This won't remove the files from the Tivo....but would at least get them off the box.

Would be nice if you could at least limit a WL to favorites. I set up a lot of AR WL for movies hoping to pick them up off the premium channels, but a lot of times I end up getting them on TNT, USA, etc.. instead where they are all cut up and have dubs over the bad words. If I could at least limit a WL to favorites then I could set the favorites to be all the HD premium channels and work around the problem.

Would be nice if you could at least limit a WL to favorites. I set up a lot of AR WL for movies hoping to pick them up off the premium channels, but a lot of times I end up getting them on TNT, USA, etc.. instead where they are all cut up and have dubs over the bad words. If I could at least limit a WL to favorites then I could set the favorites to be all the HD premium channels and work around the problem.

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Sounds like another candidate for non auto record WLs. That's why I'm so upset over the downgraded non auto record WL functionality of Roamios. I have several generic wishlists such as "NFL Football" and "Tennis" that match a whole lot of recordings that I would never want to auto record all of them, so I use "View Upcoming" to select what I actually do want to record. It used to be pretty easy/quick to do but now on Roamio it's much more of a PITA, especially with the stupid bug where cursor goes to the top entry every time you exist program details. Annoying as hell.

I think best you can do is make the Wishlist non auto record, then once a week or once a day use "View upcoming" to get a list of everything the wishlist catches and then go through and record the ones you want.
Unfortunately with Roamio software TiVo crippled non auto record wishlist functionality to make this kind of thing much harder to use, so it's not as convenient as it used to be, but it's better than getting a whole bunch of recordings you don't want.

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Also, it's a pain to even do View Upcoming to select shows, since once you have selected ONE to record, going back out left goes all the way back to the show, NOT to the list of upcoming episodes.. (in the SD UI on previous Tivos, it works much like I expect, and you can easily View Upcoming then select a bunch of specific episodes to record, one at a time)

Also, it's a pain to even do View Upcoming to select shows, since once you have selected ONE to record, going back out left goes all the way back to the show, NOT to the list of upcoming episodes.. (in the SD UI on previous Tivos, it works much like I expect, and you can easily View Upcoming then select a bunch of specific episodes to record, one at a time)

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Yes the HDUI Wislists implementation is a disgrace and I can only imagine the programmers completely ignored non auto record use model of Wishlists thereby degrading one of the things that sets TiVo apart from other solutions. Unfortunately I don't see many others passionate about the loss of Wishlists functionality so I fear it will never get the attention it needs.
(Everyone has their hot button issue and this happens to be mine at the moment).
It almost makes me want to start working on my own Wishlist implementation via RPC which has the additional bonus of things such as excluding or including certain channels could be implemented easily.

Sounds like another candidate for non auto record WLs. That's why I'm so upset over the downgraded non auto record WL functionality of Roamios. I have several generic wishlists such as "NFL Football" and "Tennis" that match a whole lot of recordings that I would never want to auto record all of them, so I use "View Upcoming" to select what I actually do want to record. It used to be pretty easy/quick to do but now on Roamio it's much more of a PITA, especially with the stupid bug where cursor goes to the top entry every time you exist program details. Annoying as hell.

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Nah. i have a few non-ARWLs and I never remember to check them. I want them to auto record, I just want to limit the scope of channels they're record from. TiVo knows which channels are premium, since it asks during GS, so even a "premium" category would work for me.

Yes the HDUI Wislists implementation is a disgrace and I can only imagine the programmers completely ignored non auto record use model of Wishlists thereby degrading one of the things that sets TiVo apart from other solutions. Unfortunately I don't see many others passionate about the loss of Wishlists functionality so I fear it will never get the attention it needs.
(Everyone has their hot button issue and this happens to be mine at the moment).
It almost makes me want to start working on my own Wishlist implementation via RPC which has the additional bonus of things such as excluding or including certain channels could be implemented easily.

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I'm not referring to just wishlists, I'm referring to ANY View Upcoming usage.

Does unchecking a chanel cancel or screw up season passes on it?
I know it won't show in the guide, but would the existing season pass still work?

Might be worth experimenting with... (Unless someone here has tried and can chime in with their experience?)

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I think it is *SUPPOSED* to stop recordings from happening (and that is exactly what I would expect). However, on both my Tivo HD & Premiere 4, I *do* see recordings sometimes scheduled on channels I have UNCHECKED. And it was *long* ago, not within a week or something.

I'm a little bit vaguer here, but I'm pretty sure it happens way more often on my TivoHD than Premiere 4, but it still happens sporadically.

I think it is *SUPPOSED* to stop recordings from happening (and that is exactly what I would expect). However, on both my Tivo HD & Premiere 4, I *do* see recordings sometimes scheduled on channels I have UNCHECKED. And it was *long* ago, not within a week or something.

I'm a little bit vaguer here, but I'm pretty sure it happens way more often on my TivoHD than Premiere 4, but it still happens sporadically.

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Actually, that sounds perfectly reasonable. You can manually tune to an unchecked channel, right? So why shouldn't a season pass be able to tune to it and record from it? Presumably the channel would have to be checked when you created the season pass. And it sounds like a useful feature.

Actually, that sounds perfectly reasonable. You can manually tune to an unchecked channel, right? So why shouldn't a season pass be able to tune to it and record from it? Presumably the channel would have to be checked when you created the season pass. And it sounds like a useful feature.

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We do exactly this intentionally for some kids shows where we know they were never produced in HD (record on Disney Junior SD but uncheck it to leave it off the guide). When you're keeping a couple seasons' worth, it definitely helps with the space consumption.